As kids roam the streets on Halloween, parents worry about their safety

As princesses and superheros roam the streets on Halloween night so do their parents, making sure they are arriving home safely.

“I limit very much where we go,” Cynthia Johansen said, a parent living in Fort Myers. “We don’t do much neighborhood.”

Johansen said on Halloween night, she is avoiding the neighborhoods she does not know who is opening the door.

“There are neighborhoods with kids in them where kids are walking door to door,” Johansen said, “and don’t know who the sex offenders are in the neighborhood.”

The Lee County Sheriff’s Office said they are keeping an eye on over 900 registered sex offenders or predators this Halloween. Officials in Collier County are watching 38 while Punta Gorda has its focus on two.

“Unfortunately, I think it is something parents have to be aware of,” Usman Mian said, a parent who lives in Fort Myers.

The Florida Department of Corrections said sex offenders are not allowed to partake in any Halloween activities. These activities include distributing candy, dressing in costumes or putting out decorations that may attract children to their front door.

“If a sex offender has his porch lights on,” Mian said, “that’s a general indicator, ‘hey i’ve got candy.’ Then that’s something that definitely needs to be addressed.

Charlotte County is home to 265 sex offenders.

Charlotte County’s Detective John Sadler goes door to door making sure convicts who are on probation don’t take part in Halloween festivities.

There is a strategic method to avoid sex offenders or predators. Florida Department of Law Enforcement launched an app where parents can obtain the addresses of sex offenders in a particular area.

“That’s definitely something I would want to look at and utilize that information to best protect our kids,” Mian said.

To visit the app and search for possible predators in your neighborhood click here.